There cannot be many editors who would be prepared to describe their newspaper as an "oil tanker heading nowhere" - particularly not on the record, in their first major interview since taking on the job. But then Steve Dyson, editor of the newly renamed Birmingham Mail, has not had much to crow about since he took over in July.

In the six months before Dyson was appointed, sales of the Trinity Mirror-owned evening newspaper plummeted, down nearly 10% on weekdays and 14% on Saturdays, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Dyson, a former deputy editor of the paper, was brought in to change all that. He has come up with a two-and-a-half year plan to turn the Mail into the "best performing metropolitan-sized newspaper in Britain". At the moment, he cheerfully admits, it is the worst performing.

From today the Birmingham Evening Mail reverts to the plain Birmingham Mail, a title it last used in 1967, as part of a relaunch aimed at wooing back lost readers with more local news, increased lifestyle coverage and four new editions.

"We're going back to the grassroots with a more detailed focus on local areas," says Dyson. "People can get breaking news in most places - that's the real challenge for evening papers. We've got to remind them how essential we can be by concentrating on what we're good at - reflecting people's local lives."

Instead of producing three timed editions, the Birmingham Mail will from today publish seven local editions, with four pages in each dedicated to local news. Each edition will go on sale in the city itself, at different times, allowing the Mail to produce timed editions as well as regional ones. Local coverage, traditionally relegated to the inside pages, will also be flagged up prominently on the front page.

"We are not going to apologise for our local news coverage. In recent years the Mail has moved away from local news but the readers are saying very clearly 'we're not buying you because there isn't enough news about our area'," says Dyson.

Dyson, who has lived in Birmingham all his life apart from a four-year stint as editor of the Evening Gazette in Teesside, says the way to fight the threat from national newspapers and the internet is to focus on what the regional press does best - focus on local news.

He has already attracted attention to the paper with a high-profile campaign over new Rover owner Nanjing Automobile. The paper demanded answers to 12 questions on its plans for the car maker, publishing them under a front-page headline in Mandarin and sending them to Nanjing's director of public affairs, and to the Chinese embassy.

But it is not just the big issues Dyson wants to address. In future, the paper will print every single planning application in the area, and Dyson says readers can expect his reporters to take a much closer interest in their day-to-day lives.

"I've heard of reporters getting calls from people saying 'it's my wife's 50th birthday, can you send a photographer', and telling them 'we're not really doing that kind of story any more'. Well that's the kind of story we need to be doing," he says.

Dyson admits that persuading Trinity Mirror to invest in a "failing" paper was not easy - the publisher is investing in a major marketing campaign to promote the relaunch of the paper, and going from three to seven editions does not come cheap.

The group has been one of the more successful at turning around the performance of its regional titles. Its Welsh paper, the Western Mail, was the fastest growing regional daily in the first half of this year with sales up 4.1% Monday to Friday following a successful switch to a tabloid format at the end of last year. The Newcastle Evening Chronicle and Liverpool Daily Post also enjoyed sales increases.

But the paper's success went against the general downward trend. Overall, ABC figures show sales of paid-for regional papers fell by nearly 8% between 1999 and 2004. In the first six months of this year most of the big regional papers suffered falls, with evening papers continuing to bear the brunt of the declines.

The Brighton-based Sussex Argus was down 11% year-on-year on Mondays to Fridays and 12% on Saturdays in spite of a relaunch two years ago, while the Edinburgh Evening News, Bath Chronicle, Bradford Telegraph & Argus and Lancashire Evening Post all suffered falls.

Over the past few years advertising revenues in the regional press have proved more resistant to the downturn than national newspapers. But in recent months the three big players, Trinity Mirror, Johnston Press and the Daily Mail and General Trust's Northcliffe Newspapers, have all reported falls in advertising revenues - with recruitment advertising being squeezed the most.

Classified advertising for property, jobs and cars remains one of the biggest sources of advertising revenue for regional newspaper groups, which make 80% of their revenue from advertising, of which two-thirds is classifieds. But there are fears such adverts are migrating to the internet, to sites such as Google and eBay.

Of particular concern is a new service Google launched in April in a deal with Yellow Pages owner Yell. Google Local allows users to search a particular area by entering, for example, "Pizza - Plymouth" - with advertisers paying to have their products featured prominently on the site.

Regional publishers have been hitting back with their own online offerings. Last month Trinity Mirror agreed to buy online recruitment business the Hotgroup, owner of Workthing.com and planetrecruit, to add to its two other recently acquired advertising website companies smartnewhomes.com and recruitment specialist GAAPweb. It is also a partner in Fish4, which specialises in classified advertising online.

Johnston Press, owner of the Yorkshire Post, is expanding its internet operations and later this year the company plans to launch an online auction service to compete with eBay.

The Newspaper Society, which represents regional newspaper publishers, is predictably bullish about the industry's prospects for the future.

"When they get it right there's definitely an appetite for regional papers," says marketing director Robert Ray. "Local news is the raison d'etre of regional publishers whatever the platform - and they are now on radio and TV as well as online and print. But always with a strong remit of connecting with local communities."